Former CEO of Design Within Reach and business consultant, John Edelman grew up on a horse farm in Connecticut. The youngest of 6, his childhood was filled with love, surrounded by his parents’ big dreams, in a home filled with visitors, from Andy Warhol to fashion executives. A hustler and daredevil from an early age, he excelled at flipping cars and riding dirt bikes but struggled in school. After college, John joined the family leather business, sorting buffalo skins in Thailand, worked for his brother at Esprit, and lived in Brazil to work in the shoe business. From 2010 - 2019 John served as CEO of Design Within Reach, during his tenure he pulled the company out of a downward spiral, transformed it into the world leader in authentic design, and led a highly publicized sale to Herman Miller. Now, Co-Founder of Fourth & Pride vodka, John’s life has been one great story after another - from adventure to romance, hardships to triumph, and a future that looks just as thrilling.

On May 12, to kick off WantedDesign Online 2021’s online International Schools Show, host Amy Devers sat down with three brilliant, inspiring thought-leaders to discuss opportunities, advice, and insight for design students' next steps. Amy was joined by Natalie Nixon, Founder of Figure 8 Thinking; Diane Domeyer, Executive Director of The Creative Group; and Rosanne Somerson, President of RISD. The conversation looks beyond the portfolio to frame the value of creative training, stresses the importance of curiosity, and reminds us that the career path is itself a creative endeavor. With their creative tool kits, design students have everything they need to design their own opportunities.

Principal of Commune Design, Roman Alonso grew up in Caracas Venezuela, often traveling around in a motorhome with his family to escape to nature, before moving to Miami as a teenager. He attended Boston University, with the underlying fantasy of getting to New York. After college, he got a job at Barney’s in New York, wrote for the style section of The New York Times, and started a publishing company, Greybull Press. Commune was founded in 2004 in Los Angeles and since then Roman and partner Steven Johanknecht have grown it into a vibrant community of creatives, a Commune Shop, and impressive international hospitality projects, including many Ace Hotels, that have the adventurous, warm spirit Roman brings to everything he does.

Sculptor and furniture designer Jonathan Trayte, a native of Yorkshire, UK, spent his early childhood in a camper van with his family in rural southern South Africa. Back in the UK, his childhood was filled with weekend picnics in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, sparking his love for sculpture. He went to Canterbury for his BFA and worked in kitchens on the side, a job that continues to influence his work today. Jonathan graduated from the Royal Academy in Art and was quickly met with success around his bronze sculptures but was itching to experiment more. And experiment he certainly has - from collaborating with Kit Neale on a café commissioned by the British Fashion Council to creating a desert road-trip inspired show at Friedman Benda, he melds together materials, concepts, and memories to create exceptional works of art.

Civic and service designer Sarah Brooks grew up in Manhattan, the daughter of an actress and doctor. With a voracious imagination, she spent her days running around with the neighborhood kids or watching her mom on stage. As a teenager, she found her tribe in the punk rock scene, inspired by the DIY attitude and creative expression. After getting started professionally in TV production, sudden and profound tragedy struck, sending Sarah’s life on a radical detour through grief, healing, and rebuilding herself. The journey led her to a greater appreciation for emotional honesty, human connection and presence - qualities she also brings to her creative work as design executive at IBM, and as an advocate for social impact and regenerative design.

Designer Edward Barber grew up in a small UK village running around with his brothers, making tree houses, bows and arrows, and drawing. As a teenager, he fell in love with sailing, fixing boats, and photography. He eventually landed in the architecture program at Royal College of Art where in the first week he met Jay Osgerby. The two became fast friends, collaborators and founding partners of Barber Osgerby. In the early years, with some “engineered luck” in the form of Giulio Cappellini, Edward and Jay were fast-tracked in the world of international furniture design. Since then, they’ve gone on to found Universal, an architecture and interior design studio, and Map, focused on tech and industrial design. Having designed everything from stacking chairs with a dynamic tilt aimed at improved learning in schools, to experiential sound installations... carving out his own path has worked out just fine!

Product designer Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, grew up in rural New Hampshire in a family with a rich tradition of craft. By the second grade, she was making all her own clothes and knew how to use all the power tools in her grandfather’s woodshop. Her high school track coach worked for Nike, which meant the team got to test out the goods and she had a front row seat to the R&D of performance wearables. She’s racked up over 25 years of experience designing products for athletes at companies like Nike, Champion and Fila. Now, as founder of Interwoven Design Group, she combines her expertise in wearable technology and functional apparel for clients ranging from startups to NASA, and runs circles around mere earthlings designing award-winning human-centered environments for outer space with SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architects.) And yep, she burns fiercely and brightly, like the superstar that she is.

Michael Ford is the designer and activist known as The Hip Hop Architect. Born in Highland Park, Michigan the son of a minister, Michael was raised to be inquisitive and question the world around him to find deeper truth. Early on, he found his passion for design and music, expanding it into a practice of architecture and design through the lens of Hip Hop culture. This led to his founding of The Hip Hop Architecture Camp®, a camp that positions Hip Hop Culture as a catalyst to introduce architecture and design to underrepresented youth. He’s also working with some of Hip Hop's greatest names as he leads the design of The Universal Hip Hop Museum in The Bronx.

Designer Antionette Carroll, born, raised, and based in St. Louis, Missouri, is a natural born leader who has been on a mission since day one. She’s the founder of Creative Reaction Lab, a nonprofit educating and deploying youth to challenge racial and health inequities impacting Black and Latinx populations. Antionette co-pioneered an award-winning form of creative problem solving called Equity-Centered Community Design and in doing so has received several recognitions and awards including being named an ADL and Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow, TED Fellow, SXSW Community Service Honoree, and Essence Magazine Woke 100, among many others. She’s also a classic Taurus, the mother of twins, a fan of Mexican food, and a proud granddaughter!

Lighting design plays an enormous role in supporting mood, feelings, perceptions and even human connection and romance. In this time when we’re suffering the side effects caused by extreme deprivation of social interaction and human connection we thought it would be a beautiful thing to talk about how lighting can be designed to soothe our minds, uplift our spirits and help us find clarity, depth and meaning in our day, in our surroundings, in ourselves. To help us visualize and understand both the science and the poetry of lighting design we talked to two experts at the top of the lighting game: Drew Stuart, Field Director and Partner at multi-disciplinary architecture and design studio, INC, and Cecilia Ramos, Senior Director - Architectural Market for Lutron Electronics. This conversation is brought to you by Lutron, and was recorded in October of 2020 as part of CLOSEUP, a live & virtual two-day design showcase event presented by WantedDesign Manhattan and ICFF.